If there was anything that a young, brilliant unicorn such as Luna knew, it was that Party Favor was a troublemaker.
Just that day in class, he had put a whoopee cushion on the teacher's chair. The prank would have been standard, cheap fare if it wasn't for the fact that he had set up bubble wands dipped in colored soap behind the chair, thus making it seem like that her flatulence produced a rainbow of bubbles. Luna's infantile classmates roared with laughter, and upon Party Favor hitting the lights, some of the other unicorns used their fledgling magic to create a light show out of the bubbles.
And once again, like with the incidents of the chocolate volcano and the talking cheese sandwich, the furious teacher dragged him by the ear out of the classroom for time out, and continued the planned lesson. The other foals groaned. It was quite the disappointment that the prank didn't lead to a more interesting lesson on what they normally considered a boring subject, such as what happened with the confetti tornado in physics.
It was times like this that Luna wished she was in a more advanced class. She was already learning the difficult art of dreamwalking as a filly, and had even earned her cutie mark in it. She preferred thicker, more complex books over the pastel picture books that glossed over many tantalizing details. And she certainly thought it unfair that she had to be in the same class as an irritating prankster.
After class, Luna was waiting outside Headmaster Spikendar's office, her bag filled with her many, many notes on her dreamwalking adventures. She had been making great progress since gaining her cutie mark, knowing that she was one step closer to visiting Princess Twilight. As she practiced prancing through the dreams of her family, her sister Celestia's friends, and the headmaster himself, her horn ached less and less, and she could spend more time exploring the dreamscape. While she could talk with the headmaster about this in the dreamscape, she wanted to show him the physical notes that she took after each trip.
From where she sat, she could hear the conversation between Spikendar and Party Favor's father, both once again exasperated over the colt's prank. As much as she'd rather think about the next step in her magic studies, even she was not free from the curiosity of what they were saying.
By the sound of the constant hoofbeats coming from inside, she could tell Party Favor's father was pacing. "I do not understand why he does this. Does he not understand that I have my own class to teach here, and I can't just be dragged out every time he gets in trouble? I've told him countless times that he needs to stop, but he doesn't listen!"
"It's a shame that he persists in his shenanigans, Quasar Rune," Spikendar said, his deep voice rumbling as befitting for a large dragon. "Coming from your family, he should have inherited some of your brilliance. Unfortunately, with how he applies it, he'll end up burning down the entire school sooner or later."
Luna scoffed at that. Party Favor, brilliant? He had little interest in any of the subjects and was more invested in being the class clown.
Spikendar continued, "Does he have any problems at home?"
"Nothing serious," Quasar Rune answered. "He doesn't get along with his brother, but his needs are provided and he does get along with his sister. I suspect that his mother spoils him when I'm not looking, but I have my doubts thanks to how she does discipline his siblings."
"It is quite possible; many families are more lenient towards the youngest of the family."
Luna rolled her eyes. She was the youngest of her family, and she never acted up in class. If anything, she was too invested in her studies to really care what her classmates thought. Party Favor's antics were clearly just a ploy for popularity.
"I'll see to it that he's properly disciplined for his actions," Quasar said. "I best start with confiscating all of his pranking implements and locking them away once we get home."
"But, Dad!" Party Favor complained. "That's not--"
"Don't lecture me about what is or isn't fair, Party Favor. Is it fair that your classmates miss important lessons just because you're bored? Or is it fair that your teacher spends countless hours crafting a lesson for her class, only to face an embarrassing interruption? It's clear to me that you're not being fair to them. You can handle not touching any of those toys for a week."
Party Favor groaned in defeat. Luna felt a slight twinge of pity for him, but at the same time, he did have it coming.
"I suppose we are done here; his detention here and losing his clown privileges at home should be punishment enough," Spikendar said. "Now, Party Favor, we aren't going to have trouble in the future, correct?"
Silence. Luna had to imagine that Party Favor was giving him a curt nod, pouting over his punishment and dreading a long week of boredom. Luna may have been just a little bit thankful that he wasn't going to be annoying for the next week. If only the entire class could actually slow down like that for once; maybe they'd be easier to approach.
The door opened, and out strode Quasar Rune, walking with dignity as a respected unicorn teacher of the academy would, followed by his son Party Favor, his head slumped forward in shame. The latter paused for a moment to glance at her, but then continued on to follow his father. Luna sat a moment to watch the cornflower blue stallion and light blue colt walk down the hall, a tense silence between them.
Luna slipped off the bench and turned to walk into Spikendar's office. Before she shut the door, she heard another exchange between father and son echoing down the hall.
"Neither your brother nor sister has ever caused this much trouble for their classes," Quasar Rune scolded.
"But Kaz has tried to fuse me with the cat!" Party Favor argued. "Why isn't he ever grounded?"
Hearing that was odd, but she heard more than enough from that family. None of their family drama was any of her business, and she had more important matters to attend to.
Luna really should have known that Spikendar would have asked her if she went into a classmate's dream yet. Despite any protests about how it made her nervous, she couldn't connect with any of them, and that they didn't understand her, the headmaster insisted that she stop putting it off. Perhaps, he had said, it would do her good to try to understand one of them--communication is a two-way street, after all.
She couldn't argue with that; she wouldn't have made friends with her sister's boyfriend otherwise. Even so, Celestia and her friends were several years older, while Luna had a history of never being on the same page of those her age. Just what would she talk to her classmates about?
After falling asleep, her trigger spell activated her dreamwalking spell. After stepping out of her own dream, she once again found herself standing in the glorious dream field, many paths winding across the landscape. Some led to the floating cutie marks of ponies she knew; others stretched forth into the mist, for ponies and other creatures that she had yet to explore.
She walked through the field, scanning each mark. The one that was closest and clearest was Celestia's mark, followed by those of their parents. Then it was Celestia's special somepony, Sunburst, and a couple more of Celly's friends. There was the green flame that represented the headmaster as well. And then there were the marks of her classmates, their marks blurred by the mist.
She could pick out a few of the marks by their shapes and colors, such as Lightning Dust, Babs Seed, and others. The clearest one was the balloon animal representing Party Favor, and it was only that clear thanks to being paired up with him for a class activity one time.
Staring at the symbol, she thought back to the conversation between Party Favor's father and the headmaster. While she had earlier determined that the class clown's home life was none of her business, Luna realized that she was now considering going back on that. Party Favor seemed to be one of the nicer kids, even if his preferences were childish.
She might as well. As she approached the mark, she fully expected to enter a circus.
She certainly got her circus, but not the kind that she thought Party Favor would dream up.
First off, the entire audience was made up of the same pony: a cornflower blue, purple-maned stallion wearing glasses, who Luna recognized as Party Favor's father. They all just stroked their goatees as the ringmaster, a black-haired, royal blue teenage colt, cracked a fire whip at the performers as he cackled. Oddly, despite having a horn, he was using his hoof instead. And, most bizarrely of all, not only were they all Party Favor, but they were all him as a cat.
There were the strong cats, the knife-throwing cats, the tightrope-walking cat, the trapeze cats, and even the clown cats. So many cats performing under one tent, yowling in fear should the ringmaster crack his whip at them. The music played so joyfully, in contrast to the torture she witnessed. And, as much as she scanned the chaos, Luna could not place which one was the real Party Favor, the one with the actual perspective and wasn't just a bit part.
One clown cat juggled his fellow clowns, only to accidentally toss them when the whip snapped his way and lose them to the sky forever. The tightrope cat was startled when the whip cracked at him, and fell down until he hit the ground, bursting into water like a water balloon. One knife tosser ended up throwing knifes at the audience, making some of the Quasar Runes burst in a puff of smoke. He was hit with the whip and reduced to ashes for his crime.
Taking a deep breath, Luna decided to weave through the chaos, summoning a shield so that nothing could hit her. Her horn ached a little, but she could bear that longer than she used to. She had a mission to find the real Party Favor--or Kitty Favor, as was appropriate for the situation--and figure out the why for the goings on in this dream.
One of the trapeze Kitty Favors fell right in front of her, and exploded into water upon impact. Luna was glad that it was just water, or else this dream would make quite the horror story. No, it was already a horror story, with that sadistic ringmaster just whipping that fire whip haphazardly, messing up the acts of the Kitty Favors so that they'd die horribly in some manner, with the audience barely reacting to it. The ringmaster even shouted, "You're so funny, bro!", despite the Kitty Favors being clearly miserable.
Luna set her jaw. Even if the ringmaster was just part of the dream, she felt the need to set him straight.
So, when she was close to the ringmaster, she used her magic to yank the fire whip from his hoof. When the alarmed ringmaster turned around, Luna glared at him, shouting, "You have some nerve to whip those poor cats like that! I have never met anypony who deserved so much of my contempt until now."
The ringmaster blinked. Then, narrowing his eyes into a glare, he snatched his whip back. "You have some nerve to interrupt my show. See, Party Favor doesn't have a talent in magic, so I'm punishing him for disappointing Dad."
Luna noted the way that the Quasar Runes all nodded in unison. Still, she said, "Try it again, and I'll vaporize you."
The ringmaster said nothing, and lifted his whip to flog her. But, before they could clash, the ringmaster was hit by a pie and knocked to the floor. Luna scarcely had time to take it in before one of the clown Kitty Favors broke formation, and pulled her by the tail out of the tent. She only watched as the rest of the Kitty Favors screeched, and then dogpiled on the ringmaster in an act of revenge.
Outside of the tent had them running out into a desert, and they kept on going until they came across an already-lit campfire, with logs for sitting surrounding it. Luna didn't question it, knowing that it was a dream, and just sat down at it with who she was sure was the real Party Favor. As the cat caught his breath and wiped the greasepaint off his face, Luna looked back. Though it felt like they didn't run far, the tent had already completely disappeared.
She turned to see Party Favor staring at her, curious about this new face. She wasn't sure whether he now knew if it was a dream or not, but if anything, his seeing her in his dream was probably a rare occurrence.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you," she said. She leaned against a log. "I couldn't let that circus go on."
Party Favor looked down at the ground, under the low light of the fire. "Kazam always takes over my circus. He and Dad don't like it."
Now she understood who the ringmaster was. It was tempting to pet the poor kitty. However, knowing that that cat was one of her classmates was a little too off-putting for her to try it. That led her to ask, "Why are you a cat?"
Party Favor examined his claws. "Kaz fused me with the cat. I don't know how to turn back."
Luna recalled the exchange between Party Favor and his father concerning the former's older brother and his apparent habit of trying to splice the little colt and the family pet, and she had to repress a shudder. Fusing objects to create something new was one thing; it was a difficult spell, but it could be managed. But, fusing two living creatures was horrifying, and was more than likely to lead to a deformed monster that was in constant pain, or even death. She was thankful that this was just his dream.
"So, uh... why don't they like your circus?" Luna asked. What Kazam the ringmaster said came to mind right after she said that. "Does it have something to do with having a talent in tomfoolery instead of magic?"
Party Favor had been licking his paw, and his ears perked up. "Tom-what?"
Luna groaned. "Being silly."
"I like being silly!" Party Favor said, the fire growing brighter with his exclamation. He twirled like a ballerina. "I like making other ponies laugh, and smile, and have fun! I was never very good at magic, even though my family history has a lot of wizards and magicians in it. But my mom always says that making ponies smile is a whole lot better than being some kind of powerful wizard. She also says that it's an underappreciated talent."
"You interrupt class with it."
Party Favor fell onto his back, and he looked up at the sky with a huff. "I get enough of smart book stuff from my dad." He sighed. "But don't worry, I won't do that for the next week. I'm grounded." He rolled over onto his belly, in doing so making himself resemble a loaf of bread. "I hope nopony's sad when I can't be as silly as usual."
"Maybe from now on, you'll keep the silliness at recess," Luna said.
Party Favor just stared at her. "Do you always have to be a spoilsport?"
Luna was taken aback by that statement. "A spoilsport?! Well, excuse me for having more important matters in my mind than silly games! I'm learning, working hard, and studying so that I can better Equestria! What are you doing for Equestria with your nonsense?"
Party Favor jumped and backed up at that, the fire bursting the very moment of his fright before dimming down again. He once again rolled up into a loaf, and his ears were flat against his head. Luna considered just telling him that he was dreaming, just so he'd transform back into a pony and not have to act like a cat. Part if it was just how ridiculous she felt for talking to a cat, but another part of it was to wash away guilt for yelling at a cat.
After a moment, Party Favor answered, "Equestria's really big... as much as I'd like to go everywhere to make ponies laugh, I'm scared of going out on my own. But, I'm happy just making my friends laugh! Even if my dad and brother don't like it, or my mom and sister aren't home, at least I can count on my friends to like my special talent."
Luna held her breath a moment before a sharp exhale. "I'm afraid I don't see what's so important about what you do."
"Well, making ponies happy might seem small to you, but its big to me." Party Favor glanced away and smiled fondly. "Like the time, at Coconut Cream's birthday party, when we had an ice cream ball fight!"
As he said this, the fire grew in size, and projected Party Favor's memory of said event within the flames. Luna looked up and stared at it, watching as a bunch of foals tossed balls of vanilla ice cream at each other, playing a winter game in the middle of July. She thought it strange that they would waste perfectly good ice cream, no matter how much fun it seemed they were having.
Party Favor purred. "Or, how my sister let me bring my friends to her birthday party, where we went ice skating!"
The flames changed to show that memory, where Party Favor and an older filly, who was white as snow with blue and purple hair, were skating. Party Favor was being pulled by a kite, and was gathering everyone's gifts for her sister and giving them to her to open. He was also doing funny tricks to make everypony, the sister included, laugh.
"Or when Lightning Dust had a broken wing, I visited her in the hospital to show her what I could build with balloons!"
That scene appeared in the flames, where Party Favor weaved the Statue of Harmony out of balloons in under ten seconds. Following that was the Seaddle Needle, a scale model of Headmaster Spikendar, and a little balloon sword so that he and the injured pegasus could have a mock sword fight. Despite being confined to a bed, Lightning Dust was smiling and laughing, forgetting her woes thanks to a friend. It reminded her of how Celestia would be at her bedside, reading her a good book and serving tea whenever she was sick.
She immediately thought of how she wanted to help Princess Twilight be happy after ruling so long without her beloved brother. Watching Party Favor's memories with his friends, Luna started to wonder if there was some merit to what he was saying.
She sighed. "Okay, I think I sort of understand what you're saying; there's someone I'd like to he be happy. Still, your pranks make the teacher unhappy; she worked hard on her lesson and you ruined it. So, keep your jokes to lunch and recess, got it?"
Party Favor groaned. "But class is boring!"
Luna narrowed her eyes. "Got it?"
Party Favor sighed. "Okay... if I made the teacher unhappy, maybe I'll sit still like Dad wants me to." He twiddled his little cat toes. "I just wish Dad would understand my talent."
Luna stood up. "Sorry, I can't help you with that. Or with your big brother."
Party Favor blew at the tufts of curly hair atop his head. After a moment of pouting, he looked up in curiosity and asked, "Who do you want to cheer up? I could help."
Luna grimaced. "It's... none of your business." She felt a sharp twinge in her horn and rubbed it at a feeble attempt at a massage. "I'm afraid I have to go."
She turned to the moon, and started walking toward it. "Have a good night, and I wish you sweet dreams."
The weekend passed by, and school started yet again. Luna made her way to class, earlier than she normally would, and even earlier than the teacher. She was planning to talk to Headmaster Spikendar about her dreamscape adventures over the weekend, and about anything new she learned, but she decided to make a quick stop first.
She levitated a creamy cupcake out of her bag, and left it on the desk Party Favor usually sat at, with a tag labeling it for him. Her sister had made a batch for one of her classes, and was willing to give a couple to Luna. Since one was enough for her, Luna decided that maybe she could bring a smile to the grounded Party Favor's face--even though she would rather remain anonymous.
After her meeting with the headmaster, she walked into class just before the bell rang.
Indeed, she saw that smiling blue colt munching on the cupcake.